Most replayed personal development wisdom snippets: The story of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' | #529

How many rejections would it take before you gave up on your dream?

Snippet of wisdom 83.

This is one of the most replayed personal development wisdom snippets.

My guest Mitzi Perdue shares the incredible journey of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book, which has sold over 500 million copies.

Press play now to hear how persistence can turn your biggest rejection into your greatest triumph.

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Listen to the full conversation with Mitzi Perdue in episode #240:

https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/240

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Episode Transcript

Agi Keramidas (00:02):
Welcome to Personal Development mastery
podcast, and this is anothersnippet of wisdom where I select
my most insightful moments fromprevious episodes. Today's
snippet is about the tenacityand persistence it took for the
book chicken soup, for the soulto become the success that it

(00:23):
is, with over 500 million copiessold. Let's dive right in.

Mitzi Perdue (00:33):
When Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield got
together to write this book,they wrote it for a reason that
I think applies today. Theywrote the book probably 30 years
ago. Don't hold me to that timeframe, but when they wrote the
book, they felt that the worldwas hurting. They felt that

(00:54):
there was so much difficulty inthe world that people would be
hungry for things that would beuplifting and give them strength
and courage and information. Andboth men, they were public
speakers. Both men felt that inthe course of their speaking
that they had accumulated awhole lot of really

(01:17):
inspirational stories, the kindwhere it gives you, you hear the
story and you've got the energyand the direction to do better,
to go farther, to not give up.
They had all these stories. Andone day mark and and Jack
Canfield were just friendstalking about how inspirational
their stories were, and they hadthe idea, why not put them

(01:40):
together in the form of a book.
You know, your stories, mystories, let's put them
together. Well, they, theyprobably spend a year or so
working on this book. I mean,among among the but they really
believed in it because, again,they wrote it because they felt

(02:02):
that the world was hurting, andthis was a way of encouraging
people. But the the title of thebook was Chicken Soup for the
Soul, and Chicken Soup for theSoul. The idea came it started
with with both men thinking, weneed a really good title for
this one that that reallyconveys that we're about helping

(02:25):
people, and they just couldn'tcome up with a title. Then one
night, they both decided tomeditate on it separately.
They're living 100 miles apart,and so they both meditated, you
know, kind of asking, what wouldthe best title be? And Mark got
a phone call from Jack, youknow, in the wee hours of the

(02:48):
morning, maybe it was two orthree in the morning, saying,
Mark, I know, I know what, whatthe title should be. It should
be chicken soup, because I thinkof my mother and my grandmother
when things were bad, oh, they'dgive us chicken soup. And Mark
added to that, well, it's forthe soul, not for the body. And

(03:12):
so now they had the title. Sothey now had the book and they
had the title. How do you sellit? Well, the title, which has
been, you know, extraordinarilysuccessful, Chicken Soup for the
Soul. A lot of people didn't seeit that way. Jack Canfield
assistant quit because she said,this is such a Mickey Mouse,

(03:35):
kind of foolish title. Nobodywill want it, and you're you're
lowering the brand. I don't wantto be part of it. She quit. They
hired an agent to help them finda publisher. The agent said, I
hate the title. And they said,No, we really like it. He tried
with 20 different publishers tosell the book. And finally,

(03:59):
something that doesn't happenvery often, the agent fired his
clients, because he said, Nobodywants a book of stories written
by somebody else. Nobody wants abook with this funny title. So
now the two men are on theirown, and they keep, I think it
was for like a year and a half.
They kept calling in differentpublishers, doing everything

(04:22):
they possibly could. Andfinally, there's something
called the American BooksellersAssociation convention. It's
three days, and you know, themen Mark, Mark Victor Hansen and
Jack Canfield are just goingaround to all the publishers of
probably 1000s of them. And overand over again, not only were

(04:45):
they turned down, but peoplewouldn't even look at them
because of the title of thebook. Oh my gosh. Finally, the
last day they met somebody whosaid, I'll give it a look, but I
don't make any promise. Says theguy took the book, and then when
he was in the airport, he didwhat nobody else had done, he

(05:08):
started reading the book, and hesaid it was so moving that he
was starting to cry, and he wasfeeling self conscious, because
he's thinking, here I am in anairport, I'm a grown man, I've
got a book in my end, and I'mcrying. And he was wondering,
what, what good all the peoplein the airport are thinking of

(05:31):
him, but he, you know, he feltthe book really had something,
but he didn't wanted to commitwithout his partner. His partner
read it, and the two partnersagreed, and they they bought the
book, or the rights to the book,but they said, you know, this is
a little niche book. It mighttell sell 20,000 mark. And Jack

(05:55):
said, No, it's going to sell amillion. And the publisher said,
You guys are crazy, and oh mygosh, the first few weeks of
when the book came out, whocouldn't even believe this, the
book bombed. Nobody would reviewit. The booksellers wouldn't
carry it. If you're going tohave a best seller, you know,

(06:18):
it's a really good sign if youcan sell 5000 the first week
they sold 80, the book wasbombing. So now, what do you do?
Nobody likes the book. Nobodylikes the title. Who could have
ever even dreamed that one dayit would, it would be in the
Guinness Book of worlds recordssince, the booksellers in

(06:41):
general wouldn't carry it, theybegan giving it away. And then
something wonderful happened.
And oh, is this ever the valueof persistence and not giving
up? You know, here they had gonethrough 144 different turndowns.
And I believe it was 143 turnsdowns, and the 140/4 said, Yes,

(07:04):
but then nobody's buying it.
They begin giving it away. Andpeople would be given a book,
say at one of their talks thattake it home and think, oh my
gosh, this is, this is lifechanging. And they'd go buy five
more, and Mark and Jack theythey would accept radio
interviews, sometimes five orsix a night, and speaking

(07:26):
engagements on top of that, andwithin a year and a half, they
had sold more than a millioncopies. But you know, if they
had given up by it seemed tohave bombed at the beginning, we
wouldn't have a half a billionbooks in print from the Chicken
Soup for the Soul series. And Iwould like to invite our

(07:49):
listeners just to imagine where,what resources can you call on
to avoid giving up, because itmight be, you know, the next
step that you take that mightbring the success that you
wanted, don't give up too early.

Agi Keramidas (08:11):
Thank you for listening. You will find the
full conversation with MidziPerdue in episode 240 The link
is in the show notes. If youhave found value in this
episode, consider supporting theshow by visiting personal
development masterypodcast.com/support you will
also find the link in theepisode description. I

(08:35):
appreciate you until next time.
Stand Out. Don't fit in